Serbian fans riot after New Zealand loss

Serbia lost 1-0 to New Zealand in a friendly played in Austria. The result would be of the concern to Serbian fans and a big boost to New Zealand's.

Serbia's stand-in captain Nemanja Vidic had to appeal for calm over the microphone as his country's fans rioted during the second-half of a 1-0 World Cup warm-up defeat by New Zealand yesterday. Around 10,000 Serbia fans, mostly expatriates living in Austria, attended the match and trouble erupted in the second half when they threw burning flares, bottles and missiles on to the pitch.

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Several invaded the pitch and had to be dragged away by security before Manchester United's Vidic stepped in to urge calm as the match officials and New Zealand's players were getting ready to walk off. The match was held up for several minutes before restarting.

The ugly scenes compounded a miserable afternoon for Serbia with New Zealand's Shane Smeltz scoring the only goal in the 22nd minute.

Australia's Socceroos are the first team to land in South Africa

Australia national team the Socceroos are the first of the World Cup teams to arrive in South Africa. the 30 man squad touched down on Wednesday at Johannesburg's international airport.

The 'Socceroos', in Group D with Germany, Ghana and Serbia, boarded a luxury coach for the trip to a hotel in the elite northern Sandton suburb and will start training Thursday at a college in another upmarket area of the South African economic capital.

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Australia have lined up friendlies against Denmark on June 1 and the United States on June 5 in Roodepoort on the western outskirts of Johannesburg.

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Ghana's Serbian coach alleges Serbian intimidation

Ghana's Serbian coach has alleged that the demolition of his house by Serbian authorities is part of intimidation campaign by Serbia ahead of the World Cup clash between the two countries.

Rajevac, a Serbian, is due to lead Ghana out to the 2010 World Cup where their opening game will be against Serbia.

Media reports in Ghana say he has been receiving threatening phone calls to quit since the Black Stars reached the Final of the African Nations Cup in January and now Rajevac is linking the demolition of his mansion to his Ghana job.

The building, in the tourist town of Zlatibor was demolished because town authorities say he didn't have the proper permits to build the house.

The Ghana coach disagrees and is now vowing legal action. "This is a very suspicious move and it is clearly an attempt to stop me from leading the Black Stars to the World Cup," Rajevac reportedly told Ghana soccernet.

"This house has been here for many years and I have all the documents. It is curious that a few weeks to the World Cup they decide to destroy the house.

I have no option than to go to the courts, ask Fifa to look into the matter and also ask the Ghana government to intervene and seek protection for me at governmental levels."

Ghana line up Latvian friendly before World Cup.

Ghana will play a final warm up game against Latvia on June 5 before kicking off their 2010 World Cup campaign on June 13 in Pretoria against Serbia.

The Black Stars, who will prepare for the tournament in South Africa by pitching camp in Europe will meet the Latvians a week after another friendly in England.

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The match will take place at the Plus Stadium of English League side MK Dons in Milton Keynes which has a massive Ghanaian population.

While the Latvians may not be a top draw international side, Milovan Rajevac will be hoping the game will boost the confidence of his side and set them up nicely for the tournament in South Africa in the same manner that warm up games in London against South Korea and Jamaica boosted Stars’ confidence before their fine showing in Germany 2006.

The Latvia game will round up an intense two weeks for the Black Stars who will set up a training base in Paris between May 24-29, play Holland in Amsterdam on June 1 and play the Latvians before flying over to Pretoria for their World Cup campaign.

Serbia wallop Japan 3-0

Japan preparations for the 2010 World cup took a blow in Osaka this week.

Serbia defeated host Japan 3-0 in a friendly football international in which neither team fielded all top players they are set to have at the World Cup in June.

Forward Dragan Mrda got an early double in the third and 22nd minute before Nemanja Tomic wrapped up matters with a free-kick on the hour in Osaka.

Neither Japan nor Serbia fielded their stars who player in foreign leagues. Serbia play Germany, Australia and Ghana at the World Cup in South Africa, Japan are in a group with the Netherlands, Denmark and Cameroon.

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Camerooon lines up Slovakia, Serbia friendlies

Cameroon has lined up friendlies with Slovakia and Serbia in preparation for the 2010 World Cup.

The Indomitable Lions have already lined-up a World Cup warm-up against Slovakia in Klagenfurt on 29 May.

They will also play Portugal in a friendly in Lisbon on 1 June.

"These countries were chosen as sparring partners because their style of play is similar to that of our World Cup group opponents," the Cameroon FA said on its website.

The Indomitable Lions have been drawn in Group E alongside Netherlands, Denmark and Japan for the 2010 World Cup.

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The tournament starts in South Africa on 11 June.

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Japan names squad for Serbian friendly

Japan's coach Takeshi Okada has named his 20 man squad for the match against Serbia on Wednesday.

Japan squad:

Goalkeepers: Seigo Narazaki (Nagoya Grampus), Eiji Kawashima (Kawasaki Frontale).

Defenders: Yuji Nakazawa (Yokohama F Marinos), Yuichi Komano (Jubilo Iwata),
Yasuyuki Konno (FC Tokyo), Yuzo Kurihara (Yokohama F Marinos), Yuhei Tokunaga (FC Tokyo) Yuto Nagatomo (FC Tokyo), Atsuto Uchida (Kashima Antlers).

Midfielders: Shunsuke Nakamura (Yokohama F Marinos), Junichi Inamoto (Kawasaki Frontale), Yasuhito Endo (Gamba Osaka), Naohiro Ishikawa (FC Tokyo),
Yuki Abe (Urawa Reds), Koji Yamase (Yokohama F Marinos).

Fowards: Keiji Tamada (Nagoya Grampus), Kisho Yano (Albirex Niigata), Shinji Okazaki (Shimizu S-Pulse), Shinzo Koroki (Kashima Antlers), Kensuke Nagai
(Fukuoka University).

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Serbia is to feature a largely domestic team in Japan friendly.

As Serbia prepare for the World Cup players from the Serbian domestic League are being given a chance to fight for a place in the squad.

Serbia's national football team featuring only players who appear for domestic clubs travelled yesterday to Osaka, Japan, where they take on the host national team on Wednesday.

The coach of the team, Javor boss Radovan Curcic, has called up 18 players for the friendly event, as many as eight of whom will have their debut in the Serbia shirt.

One of the more experienced players in the squad is Red Star right-back Pavle Ninkov, who believes Serbia will be able to be on par with the home nation.

- “This game will serve the purpose of enabling an opportunity for these players to stake their claim and try to impress Serbia boss Radomir Antic and I hope we take our chance. I am glad to be back on the national team, there are some fine players here and I am confident we will be able to take the game to the Japanese,” says Ninkov.

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Nikola Beljic, OFK Beograd midfielder, will wait for his chance to make his debut in the red Serbia shirt.

- “Playing for the national team is both an honour and an obligation. I am sure the Serbian Superliga players will show their qualities and maybe impose our case in national team coach Antic’s World Cup squad plans. I will be up to us to prepare as best we can and justify our selection and live up to the recent success of the senior team,” said Beljic.

Red Star defender Milan Vilotic shares his teammate’s views, who is also to make his debut for the national team in the game against Japan.

- “I expect to give a fine performance in my debut match for the national team. I hope we all fit in well together and take on a Japan side who are in the midst of their pre-World Cup preparations. This team is the future of the Serbian national team and our job will be to show Antic he can count on us,” said Vilotic.